Greetings from (usually) sunny Queensland in Australia! I am a 22 year old University student of the sciences and recently completed my Masters degree by research in the field of molecular biology / microbiology. While my studies mostly pertain to science at this time, one of my greatest hobbies and passions has been with entertainment media – especially around the field of anime, manga and video games.

My history of gaming is a long one, having first being introduced to the world of gaming through the Nintendo 64 (Via Mario Kart 64) and the Nintendo Gameboy (Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins). While it was a slow start in the early years where I kept myself to these two platforms, I have over the years expanded my horizons to other gaming platforms. While I do have a personal preference towards RPG’s and tactical games – I am generally open to checking out any title of any genre or platform – from platformers to puzzle games and from the Nintendo DS to the Playstation 3.

My history with anime is one that is a bit shakier, especially during a period where anime was not so prevalent on television and were a fair bit costlier than they are today. As many people in my age group within Australia, I grew up watching shows such as Agro’s Cartoon Connection and more notably – Cheez TV. While I can’t remember half of the shows that were prevalent on the show (For example, I apparently watched Samurai Pizza Cats but I do not recall having watched it *Shrugs*), my first anime series was Sailor Moon and later expanded onto the usual crowd of series for the time – Digimon: Digital Monsters, Pokemon and Cardcaptor Sakura.

I picked up anime once again when I started Sam’s Anime Study in 2006 and in 2011 turned it from a relatively small anime blog into what you are seeing today…. The Otaku’s Study which I have intended to consist of elements of anime, manga, video games and visual novels – covering both news and reviews.

Sam on the Consoles

In addition to these two, I can also be found on the Wii U and Steam using the name “OtakuStudy”.

Philosophy of Reviewing

It is my philosophy that a good game/visual novel/anime/manga is not determined by its console, genre or even its developer…. but the amount of work and creativity that is put into it. That is why my personal opinions on a title remains separate from the other scores in all my recent game reviews. I will say however that to me the most critical element of any title is its storyline…. and if the storyline is non-existent or poorly written I find it harder to adapt to than poorer visuals, music or even gameplay. That being said for a game to jump the line from good to great – I expect competency in all aspects to delivering the desired experience.

and that is it…..?

While The Otaku’s Study may open up its doors to new writers in the future, at the moment it will be run by myself only. Of course many gaming websites thrive by having a large writer base, and many can most probably push out a lot more information and articles quicker than I can.

BUT, and this may partly be due to my years in science…. I find that having a single author reduces the risk of any potentially conflicting individual biases between writers. For example – if reviewer A were to review a game of a genre they liked, this review’s score could be different from what reviewer B may give if they were not to like the genre. While this may not have any impact on any biases I could potentially bring to my reviews, given there are so many gamers out there with so many different preferences I like to think it keeps a bit of consistency.